{"id":1526445,"date":"2022-06-23T08:20:06","date_gmt":"2022-06-23T12:20:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1526445"},"modified":"2022-06-23T08:20:19","modified_gmt":"2022-06-23T12:20:19","slug":"what-tori-hope-petersen-wants-you-to-know-about-being-fostered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/what-tori-hope-petersen-wants-you-to-know-about-being-fostered\/","title":{"rendered":"What Tori Hope Petersen Wants You To Know About Being \u2018Fostered\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwhat-tori-hope-petersen-wants-you-to-know-about-being-fostered%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1526445&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Screen-Shot-2022-06-23-at-7.06.59-AM-1024x669-1.png\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>The foster care system gets mentioned in discussions by people who have little to no knowledge of its reality. Tori Hope Petersen gives a firsthand account of the system and how it shaped her in her debut memoir, \u201cFostered.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Petersen is a wife, a mother to three, and has also been a foster parent. She is also a former foster youth and foster care advocate. Over her years in the system and working with the system, her faith and passion have given her the strength necessary to serve these less-than-fortunate children.<\/p>\n<p>Petersen took the time to talk with The Federalist during a short break from helping her younger sister move in. The sisters spent their early days together in foster care before being separated. This year, they were reunited and Petersen welcomed her sister into her home where they now live together. During a follow-up conversation, Petersen\u2019s son hung out on the side while enjoying a bowl of spaghetti as the two sat in the summer sun. It was apparent her family is her everything.<\/p>\n<p>Petersen talks about her upcoming book, \u201cFostered,\u201d and how her journey through the foster care system and faith journey have shaped her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.barnesandnoble.com\/w\/fostered-tori-hope-petersen\/1140624104\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Fostered<\/a>\u201d will be available for purchase on Aug. 30, 2022 on Amazon or at Barnes and Noble, Walmart, or Target.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Why did you initially decide to write \u201cFostered\u201d?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I wanted to write the book because I wanted youth in foster care to understand that they weren\u2019t victims, that they were victors, that they could overcome the hardest things that were set up against them through Christ. As I wrote the book, and as I began to write on social media, I realized that I was educating foster parents, child welfare workers, lawyers, people who worked in the child welfare space, and just people who have an interest in foster care. I didn\u2019t intend for the audience to be what it is now. I just really wanted to write a book that was kind of like the book that I needed when I was in care. Now knowing my audience is broader than I anticipated, I now hope that the book encourages people to step into the hard parts of foster care and to love those around them in an unbridled, fearless kind of way. As people read, they will see that\u2019s what was done for me by others.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>What is your experience interacting with your audience who\u2019s learning about your story and about the foster care system for the first time through your story?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s mostly just from my social media platform. When it comes to social media in general, the people who read and probably take the most from my posts are just the general population and people who have been interested in foster care, but I think have been scared. I get a lot of messages and I mean, it\u2019s just like, so amazing, so many messages of people saying, \u201cWe\u2019ve been interested in foster care for a long time. We\u2019ve been scared or we haven\u2019t done it because X, Y, and Z. Because of your post or your story, we\u2019re getting involved.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>One of the themes that you taught and touched on in your book is just the importance of strong mother and father figures and a strong family. Could you talk a little bit more about that?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t even know what to say about it. It seems so obvious that when we have those supports, the kind of unconditional love that parents give at home, that\u2019s what a strong family is. Then, we don\u2019t go searching for it in other places. When we don\u2019t have to go searching for it in other places, it feels like there\u2019s more stability around our self-worth and who we were created to be. And research shows there\u2019s so much that supports this. I just think that a strong faith and family is really the foundation of a person, but that doesn\u2019t mean a person can\u2019t be strong if they don\u2019t have a strong family either. That\u2019s why it\u2019s important that we have strong communities.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>In your book, you recount when you met your father\u2019s side of the family and you felt that sense of community even though you hadn\u2019t really known them up until then. That, along with other things that you touched on in the book, was a very emotional and personal moment. What was it like revisiting those memories?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There were moments that it was hard, but honestly, it was so healing. When people say writing memoirs is cathartic, I didn\u2019t really know what that meant. I always used to have this recurring dream that I was locked in someplace\u2014in the post office or my house or jail\u2014and I couldn\u2019t get out and my mom was yelling at me like how she yelled at me when I was a kid. I\u2019ve had that dream since I went into foster care, probably at least once a month. After I finished writing my book, I had that dream where I was locked somewhere and my mom was yelling at me, and I walked out. I\u2019ve never had the recurring dream since, and I feel like that encompasses what this book has done for me. It\u2019s just been healing. I think that\u2019s kind of what counseling does for us. It helps us process things, and I think that\u2019s what the book helped me do in a deeper way than I already had. It helped me process things all over again.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Unfortunately, not everyone can make that same peace with the past, and some people don\u2019t even have the resources to rehabilitate their minds after traumatic experiences. This is especially true for children in the foster care system. What\u2019s one of the biggest changes you would like to see in the foster care system going forward?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Every foster kid has a file, and that file follows them everywhere they go. It usually says the worst things that have ever happened to them and the worst things they\u2019ve ever done. We know that first impressions are so important, right? Like when we go into a job interview and we have a bad first impression, we think, \u201cOh how do I fix that?\u201d When a kid has a file, they can\u2019t fix that. It\u2019s just the same things that get brought up to the person that they want to form a deep relationship with. They never get a new start. They never truly get a new beginning. I think how we see children is so valuable for how they\u2019re going to see themselves. I think that we need to do something with the file so that children don\u2019t have that following them around in a way that plagues their identity, because healing really begins and ends with identity.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Poor conditions in the foster care system are a big part of the pro-abortion argument. What is your response to that?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>My response is that any real social justice advocacy or any real social justice movement, it aims to end the suffering, not the potential suffering.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>What do you hope your readers walk away with after reading through \u201cFostered\u201d?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>My greatest hope behind the book is that youth who read it, parents who read it, and people who read it understand the value that each individual has, that there\u2019s a purpose and plan for their life, and that no matter what they\u2019ve been through, God loves them. And knowing that, they love others. People and God loving me is my motivation to love others the best I can. I want that love to just continue. I think it goes back to that piece of identity that no matter where you come from, no matter what\u2019s been done to you, no matter how you were conceived, you have value, you can be loved,\u00a0you can love. There\u2019s a plan and purpose for your life. I just want people to know who God is and who God has created us to be.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Elise McCue is an intern at The Federalist and student majoring in multimedia journalism and professional and technical writing. She also reports on the Southwest Virginia music scene for The Roanoke Times. You can follow her on twitter @elisemccue or contact her at mccueelise@gmail.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The foster care system gets mentioned in discussions by people who have little to no knowledge of its reality. Tori Hope Petersen gives a firsthand account of the system and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":834,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1526445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/834"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1526445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1526445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1526445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1526445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}